TV Round-up - Project Runway Season 8 and the return of two faves

Season 8 of Project Runway premiered last night. The designers are competing for a show in September's Fashion Week which isn't as "big" as FW in February but will still always be a bigger deal than LA Fashion Week. I don't think we've had a PR season go to September FW since season 3 but I could be remembering wrong.

Anyway, for some reason, I'm not that excited about this new season. First, they've changed the format so that the show is 90 minutes long now instead of an hour format. Why are they doing this? If it means that we'll eventually get longer Tim mentor segments or the full runway critiques than I'm all for it; but if they continue to use it as a platform for giving more time to the insipid hair/make-up sessions, like they did last night, then I am concerned. The 90 min premier also worked last night because we had so many designers to get through (17!!) but I can see the extra half hour becoming tedious and lame as the season progresses. And does this mean that Lifetime won't be doing a "Models Of The Runway" show? Am I the only person that enjoyed this program? Must be...

This season's crop of designers seems to be littered with a lot of crazy and not a lot of talent. I was totally annoyed that McKell was the first designer auf'ed, when that stupid Jason dude was so annoying and so obviously lacking anything remotely resembling talent got to stick around. I think Tim Gunn agreed with me - he seemed very put out about McKell leaving. Her dress was cute!!

I can't remember a season of Runway premiering that ever left me with such a bad taste in my mouth. It doesn't bode well.

But let's talk about happier, brighter things, like the new show that premiered right after PR, featuring two former Project Runway designers: On The Road with Austin and Santino

This gem could prove to be my new obsession and all-time fave reality show this summer.

Seriously, two of my favorite Project Runway finalists doing a makeover show that's a cross between What Not To Wear and Green Acres? What's not to love!? Although Santino baby, is that a new wig/hair piece you're wearing? No sweetie. No.

I adored last night's premier with the cowgirl that does the horse stunts. Everything about the show was adorable - Austin and Santino's relationship; their tomboy client Shelby Lynn and her family, especially her awesome stepdad who's a rodeo clown; the weird historic "castle" that they shoved the homos into to use as a design studio; Weatherford TX, and its citizens' reactions to Santino and especially Austin. If every episode of this show is half as entertaining as this first one, I think we have a winner.

The return of "The Teeth"

Does Tony Robbins scare anybody else like he terrifies me?

His teeth and HUGE smile attached to his gigantic eleventy foot frame with his deep voice...I've never really understood why he's been so successful as a motivational speaker when he just reminds me of Jaws from all the James Bond movies.

That being said, I'm somewhat intrigued by his new reality show debuting tomorrow on NBC called Breakthrough. The show profiles people who have survived harrowing and tremendously difficult circumstances that range from financial to medical to emotional turmoil. And how these people were able to find the strength to transform their lives -- even in the most extreme circumstances.

I myself have struggled with a few crises over the past few years and come through the other side, bruised, but alive and stronger in many ways than I was before, so where as a decade ago I would have found this type of show to be incredibly sappy, I find myself really looking forward to it.

Additionally Tony "Teeth" Robbins has teamed up with Arianna Huffington at HuffPost to ask people who have gone through their own crisis to share their stories.

Here are the questions they're asking:

1. What was your life like right before the challenge or crisis hit?


2. What was the crisis you faced? What happened -- what did you feel and experience?


3. What pulled you through this difficult, unjust, or impossible time? What was the trigger or catalyst for change? Was it a belief, a strategy, a faith, a person, a tool? What made the change possible?


4. Once you turned the corner mentally or emotionally, what did you do to turn your life around?


5. How is your life better today because you lived through the crisis? How have you transformed? How are you stronger emotionally, physically, spiritually? What gifts do you have to give because of this?


I'm not sure I'm going to blog about my experiences and send them in or even share them here, but I have promised myself that I'm seriously going to think about each of these questions and my answers to them.

Happy last week of July 2010!

TV Round Up - mid July edition

Wow, this summer is zooming by, and I've surprisingly been out enjoying the gorgeous weather Seattle's been having, and NOT watching television. So my darling Tivo and Tifaux have been backed up waiting patiently for me to catch up on all the trashy and excellent goodness. And this past weekend I was able to get through an amazing amount of tv, thanks to the fact that I had two big home improvement projects that forced me to sit on the floor and put equipment together  - perfect for boob tube watching!
Some random thoughts about what I've seen this week -

• This season of So You Think You Can Dance has got to be the strangest on record. Not only because of the new "All Star" format, but because the eliminations have been so wacky. First we had the imbalance of more guy than girl contestants. Then America and Nigel & Co. decided to systematically eliminate 3 girls in a row. Then we had the HORRIBLE injuries for Alex Wong and Ashley Galvan. So now we're left with only ONE GIRL (the amazing Lauren), and 5 guys. The season is kind of turning into a disaster. The only thing saving it is Cat Deely and the chance to see some of my favorite All Stars dance again. I swear to God if Jose or Adechike don't go home this week I'll be super pissed off.
• You know what SYTYCD thing I am excited about? The upcoming tour that will feature Season 6 (hell yeah!) Season 7 and All Star dancers. Yippeee! Tix go sale at the end of July.
• True Blood is AWESOME this season. And getting "awesomer" with every episode. There are so many good things that I don't even know where to start to list them. This past Sunday's episode was one of the high points of the season; and seriously, if you haven't seen Mr. Fabulous himself, Lafayette Reynolds, blushing and flirting shyly with hot nurse Jesus, then you haven't seen the definition of awesome. I say this all the time but I really love the way the writers have taken the stories and characters from the Charlaine Harris books and morphed them for the small screen. They stay true to the essence of the book and stories, but expand, switch, cut, and add wonderful things. And the actors this season are really stepping up - and thank you Alan Ball and the HBO wardrobe dept for not spending much in the shirt budget. Keep that part up.
• I'm still a fan of Bravo's Work of Art, but if that faker Miles wins the whole thing I will be peeved.
• Dear Allison Grodner and the rest of the Big Brother producers - ha ha ha hee ah ha Your big twist this season got busted with the very first elimination! Nice. And while I'm actually thankful that you chose houseguests that are relatively sane this season, they're also kind of boring. So now I'm worried that this will cause you to go back to your crazy stunt casting and fill season 13 with a bunch of Evel Dicks, Chimas, Jesses and Boogies. Don't do that  please.
• Thank god odious Vern Yip, cool Genevieve Groder, and the queen Candice Olsen finally got rid of that hag Nina this week on HGTV's Design Star. I was starting to worry that they were forgetting that the winner of this show is supposed to be someone that we want to watch on television. Nina is NEVER going to be the answer to that question.
• I am living for the return of David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in the latest Masterpiece Mystery series. In fact this season of Mystery has been excellent all around and only promises to get better with Inspector Lewis coming back in a couple of months.
• I've already gushed about The Choir, but seriously why aren't you watching this gem yet?!
• I thoroughly enjoyed the debut of TNT's Rizzoli & Isles a new cop drama starring my #1 girl crush Angie Harmon. And evidently its premier did gangbusters in the ratings, so yay!

And with the upcoming Season 8 of Project Runway starting up next week, this summer's line up is really heating up.

Spencer Pratt - Craziest douchebag of all time?

Is this the face of someone sane? Good LORD! What is wrong with Spencer Pratt? I seriously think that he might be bi-polar and definitely needs to be on some sort of psychopharmacological treatment plan.

I'm afraid of what he'll do now that The Hills is off the air and his dumb, fucked up wife Heidi Montag has left him. And after last week's antics with the MTV finale party for the show, and the fact that Pratt is now calling himself an "artist" (that owns an easel and everything!), I'm worried for the safety of you know, like America.

30 years from now, how are we going to explain the existence of Spencer Pratt to our children and grand-children?

The Choir - Watch it!

Stop the presses! This anglophile has a new TV crush - Gareth Malone, the young choir director for the London Symphony Orchestra who back in 2007 (damn America for getting BBC productions so far after the fact) decided that he wanted to bring choral and classical music back into schools and working class areas of Britain - specifically lower middle class schools where children are especially disadvantaged when it comes to music programs.

On The Choir, the exuberant and amazingly positive Malone, goes to areas where there's no tradition of choral singing and starts new choirs. Over the 13 episodes BBC America will air, which began last week and airs on Wednesdays on BBC America, he starts one at a coed high school, one at a boys' school, and one in a fairly beat-down town with a reputation as kind of one big bad neighborhood.

Gareth Malone has some serious hypnotic power; his energy is so happy and infectious that these kids and people who would never consider enjoying singing choral music, end up having the time of their lives.

I seriously just want to hug Gareth and keep him in my pocket to give me encouragement whenever I need it. He's completely adorkable. The lives he touches and changes for the better, especially the children, also makes for compelling television. Do yourself a favor and watch The Choir and feel uplifted.

Happy belated Birthday Cheyenne Jackson! aka "Gay Heaven"

In honor of Cheyenne reaching the milestone birthday of 35 yesterday, I thought I'd repost one of my favorite pictures taken earlier this year at a charity function.

Can you imagine having Jackson and Jackman singing to you...naked?

Need a moment? Thought so.

SYTYCD Season 7 Top 8

Just a couple of comments about the July 7 Top 8 performance show -

• F*#@!! Both Alex Wong and Allison Holker are injured! And they put Alex automatically in the bottom 3 which I think is fair, but worrisome. Eeek my favorite All-Star girl...but wait they got my all-time fave SYTYCD girl Katee Shean to fill in - YAY.
• I know choreographer Spencer Liff plays for the other team and all, but gawddam he needs to be my boyfriend RIGHT NOW. Also Nigel take note - that's how Broadway choreography is done. Tyce Diorio needs to be retired from this genre. Permanently.
• The African Jazz number that Billy and Jose danced was very homo-erotic n'est pas?
• As much as Adechike bores me and as much as I'd like to see him go home, Mia's comments to him tonight were totally harsh and kind of out of line. And it may have backfired - I think it drove people to vote for him like crazy. Damn.

The two stars of the night for me were the girls - way to go Ashley and Lauren; you both danced your two routines perfectly. I'll be seriously pissed off if either of you is in the bottom 3 with Alex tomorrow.

Oh Lindsay...what are we going to do about you?

Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 3 months in jail! She doesn't have to start her sentence right away and it's still unclear whether the judge will let her be under house arrest for the 90 days, but either way she has to hand herself over to the authorities on July 20 and continue to wear her alcohol monitoring anklet until then.

Don't you just love the "WHATEVER, you dumbass spoiled bitch" look that Lohan's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley is sporting in this photo?!

I also love the story on Huffington Post (and other media outlets) about the "F*ck U" message Lindsay sported on her finger nails and the pathetic notes and excuses she was jotting down on her little notepad during the procedure. Hee HEE Gosh, I really do love to hate her.

Big Brother Season 12 - Get to know the House Guests

Whoa. How can it already be time for another season of Big Brother to start up again? 2010 is moving fast. But here we are in July, with another dose of my favorite TV crack waiting to be administered on July 8.
For the past 9 seasons Allison Groder and the other producers have tried to cram "twists" down our throats to keep things "unexpected" in the game. Some of these antics have worked better than others, but this season they're going with having a mole, sorry, a "saboteur" in the house that will be tasked with messing things up for their fellow houseguests. Now, I'm really hoping that unlike Season 8 with Eric being "America's Player", that this saboteur isn't affected by the votes of the other HGs so that they're not voted off too soon. Will it be like The Mole where the all of the HGs know that one among them is this traitor, so that everyone's off guard right from the beginning? If in fact the mole is voted off early on, will BB choose another HG to take over? Inquiring minds!

I finally took some time to review Season 12's cast. And of course I have opinions.
First impressions:
SO MUCH pre-hate for Annie. Her favorite BB contestant is Evel Dick? Uh, no. We’re done here.

Andrew, on paper seems like the kind of guy that I usually fawking hate. But I said the same thing about Jeff last season and I ended up loving him.

They cast Enzo strictly because he fits the Bayonne, NJ Guido “Jersey Shore” stereotype. *eyeroll* Although it amused me to no end that his favorite all-time BB player is Season 1 Justin. WTF?!

Brendon. Hmm. Cute and doesn’t seem too douchey, and has a Ph.D. in biometric physics. But when asked to use 3 adjectives to describe himself, one of the ones he used was “intelligible” which gave me pause. Did he really mean to describe himself as someone who is easily understood, or is he one of those assholes who just throws words out in conversation trying to sound smarter than he is? If it’s the former than I might end up loving this guy.

I want to like Kathy. She’s my age, seems sort of kick-ass (she’s a sheriff deputy), seems to love BB and know its history, and has survived cancer (which I hope is the excuse for her fugly hair) so seems to be ready for anything. I hope to hell she doesn’t end up being a shrill harpy.

Kristen. I am wary of anyone who claims to be “misunderstood by strangers”. This almost always means – PSYCHO BITCH

Matt seems like guys that I’m friends with, and is one of my top picks for being this season’s “Mole”. I also thought what he said about Dr. Will and his favorite BB player was very astute: "Since the beginning I've liked Will, but his strategy would never work anymore. People play the game too much now. So, I'd have to go with Dan as my favorite."

I hope to hell that Monet ends up being as cool as she seems from her profile. But I’ve been burned before.

Lane is your typical BB cast big dumb jock. He seems nice though. But that’s what I thought about Jesse when I read his bio and we all know how that turned out.

Hayden is another stereotypical BB houseguest. I hope he’s cuter in real life than in his photo. His hair could bug.

Britney Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Rachel has VERY UNFORTUNATE hair and seems like a Vegas whore. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And finally we have Ragan who methinks is the token “gay” of this season (West Hollywood represent!). He’s also AWESOME. (at least from his profile) So this means that he’ll probably lose because the people I like never win (Will and Jordan are exceptions). He's another candidate for the mole but he almost seems too obvious a choice.

Here we go folks.

Men's Final matchup - Wimbledon 2010

Well, I'm not getting my fantasy final with both boyfriends, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
But at least Rafa will be there and playing Tomas Berdych, who is sort of my hero for ousting the odious Roger Federer a couple of days ago. So I'm satisfied with the make up of this 2010 Wimbledon final, and will be happy to get up early Sunday morning (6AM here on the Pacific coast!) on Independence Day and watch some great tennis while eating my strawberries and cream.